Leclerc claims he has "really good relationship" with Sainz despite Las Vegas debacle

Following an intra-team battle at last weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claims he has "really good relationship" with his team-mate Carlos Sainz despite their on-track debacle in Nevada.

Despite a relatively satisfying point haul at last weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, Leclerc hit out at his team-mate after Sainz ignored team-order. The eight-time F1 race winner was one of the first drivers to come into the pits for his first stop, but he managed to extend his second stop compared to his direct rivals.

Pitting three laps later than Sainz, he emerged in front of the Spaniard, but he elected to overtake him while Leclerc was intent on generating heat into his new hards.

The Madrid-born driver overtook Leclerc despite the team asking him not to put his team-mate under pressure in the first corners following his second and final pit stop.

Ahead of his second tyre change, Leclerc was noted by his race engineer Bryan Bozzi that “Carlos has been told to not overtake but it is really close, you might be just in front. He has been told to not put you under pressure. So just take care of your tyres.”

Taking the chequered flag in P4, Charles Leclerc made his feelings clear over the radio to engineer his new race engineer, who took over the role from Xavier Marcos earlier this season.

Asked of how Ferrari handled the situation after the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Leclerc was quick to dismiss any long-term consequences, claiming that he has a "really good relationship" with Sainz.

"Nothing special, but at the end, I don't even need that. As I said, we have a really good relationship with Carlos. And sometimes I have overstepped the lines, and sometimes he did. And then it only requires a discussion between us two.

"And we look ourselves in the eye, and we know each other since a very long time now. We understand each other very, very quickly. So I have no doubts.

"Sometimes we need these kind of things to reset a little bit and I have no doubts that going into the last race of the season there won't be any problems or whatsoever because at the end it's in the benefit for both of us to try and win that constrictors we know that an opportunity like that doesn't happen very often and we've got to do absolutely everything on both of our side in order to try and win that.

"And we need each other in order to win that because it's not going to be easy. This weekend is not going to be easy. And by working as a team, we can maybe achieve that.

Confronted with the fact that he cut a frustrated figure after the race in Las Vegas, Leclerc said that he does not want to dwell on the last race, but he wants to fully focus on the last two races of the season.

"I don't want to go back to what happened in Vegas. Yeah, I mean, last two races of the season and we need to do absolutely everything in order to get that Constructors' Championship. That's all that matters. And whatever happened in Vegas, we discussed about it and we are all good, which is the most important thing.

"I had no doubts about that because we've always had a really good relationship with Carlos and we've had races where sometimes things don't go exactly the way we want, but the most important thing is that we discuss about it and we go forward.

"It's very clear for both of us that we just want to win the Constructors’ and it's by working as a team that we'll achieve that. And I'm sure that there won't be any problems with it.